PHILADELPHIA — Bryce Harper says the only thing the flat Phillies can do in Los Angeles is “flip the script.”
Flip it? Philadelphia needs to tear it up and start typing from scratch, because, in Hollywood terms, Harper, Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and the bulk of the high-priced Phillies have been an absolute flop.
Throw in J.T. Realmuto and Nick Castellanos, and those five players are 5-for-35 through two games of the NL Division Series with 13 strikeouts and no home runs.
The Phillies — with a $291.7 million payroll — have fallen into the same October pattern of frigid bats from their highest-priced players that also doomed their previous three playoff runs.
The Dodgers turned back Philadelphia’s late rally Monday night for a 4-3 victory in Game 2, pushing the Phillies to within one loss of elimination.
“I think those guys are trying to do a little too much right now, instead of just being themselves and looking for base hits,” manager Rob Thomson said. “The power will come.”
Dodgers left-hander Blake Snell and reliever Emmet Sheehan held Philadelphia to three hits over eight innings. Without any help from their All-Star trio at the top of the batting order, the Phillies showed life in the ninth and scored two runs on three hits.
Turner, the NL batting champion, was retired on a groundout to end the game.
For those keeping score at home, Turner, Schwarber and Harper went a combined 1-for-10 in Game 2 with five strikeouts. The trio had a combined 1-for-11 effort with six strikeouts and no RBIs in the 5-3 loss in Game 1.
“I wouldn’t say we’re pressing,” Harper said. “We’re missing pitches over the plate. They’re making good pitches when they need to. That’s kind of how baseball works sometimes.”
The Phillies were built on the long ball, so it was a bit of a head-scratcher in the ninth when Bryson Stott was asked to sacrifice with no outs and Castellanos on second base. Stott got the bunt down, only for the Dodgers to get the out at third — and the next two outs — without another run scoring.
“I wanted to play for the tie,” Thomson said. “I liked where our bullpen was compared to theirs.”
Stott defended the unpopular decision and said he tried to deaden the bunt as much as possible, but the Dodgers’ infielders executed their wheel play on defense “as perfect as you can.”
“We’re in the postseason and you’re trying to win games and getting the tying run on third with less than two outs is big,” Stott said. “You get the bunt down and you want to play for that. It just didn’t really work.”
Nothing really has for the Phillies.
With ace Zack Wheeler sidelined as he recovers from surgery to remove a blood clot in his pitching shoulder, Cristopher Sanchez and Jesus Luzardo did their part to limit the Dodgers in the first two games.
The Phillies will turn to one-time ace Aaron Nola over 12-game winner Ranger Suarez to try to save their season in Game 3. It sure looks bleak: Teams taking a 2-0 lead in a best-of-five postseason series have won 80 of 90 times, including 54 sweeps.
“First one to three,” Harper said. “They’re not there yet. We’ve just got to play the best baseball we can and understand we’re a good team in here. Anything can happen over the next couple of days.”
Nola, his season derailed by everything from ankle and rib injuries to old-fashioned inconsistency, is coming off his worst year since he broke in with the Phillies in 2015.
The 32-year-old Nola — signed to a $172 million, seven-year contract ahead of the 2024 season — was drafted seventh by Philadelphia in 2014 and had been one of the most durable pitchers in the majors since his big league debut. Even as this season unraveled, with a 5-10 record and 5.01 ERA, Thomson’s confidence never wavered.
Nola is 5-4 in 10 career postseason starts with a 4.02 ERA.
“You can’t get three wins in Game 3, right?” Nola said. “I’ve been feeling pretty good. My body’s all healthy.”
If only there was an instant cure for what ails the Phillies’ bats.
Maybe it’s going to Los Angeles.
Once invincible at home in the playoffs since this four-year run started in 2022, the Phillies lost for the fifth time in their past six playoff games at Citizens Bank Park and are just 2-9 in their past 11 overall.
“It’s been tough,” Harper said. “We’ve got to just flip the script and understand we’re a really good baseball team.”
A really good team. Just not great.
The Phillies lost to Houston in the 2022 World Series, to the Arizona Diamondbacks a year later in the National League Championship Series and were knocked out by the Mets last year in four games in the NLDS.
Get swept, and it could be the end of the line for potential free agents Schwarber, Realmuto and Suarez.
Maybe even Philly Rob.
But those are questions for the end of the series — if it ends the season.
“This is a resilient group,” Thomson said. “Our backs are against the wall. We’ve just got to come out fighting.”
